Post-Digital Sonic Media Art: Composing Systems of Resistance through Sound
An acousmatic composition by Hugo Paquete, 2025
Rhythms of the Subatomic Landscapes invites listeners into a world where rhythm unfolds not as a pulse, but as a quantum field of flux and vibration. Developed through algorithmic processes and granular synthesis, the composition constructs immersive sonic environments where percussive traces flicker, swarm, and erode.
Drawing inspiration from post-techno’s fascination with asymmetry and decay, I co-compose with unstable computational systems, allowing their dynamics to shape the flow of sonic matter. The result is a work that is at once visceral and conceptual: a study of time, perception, and the hidden structures that govern how we organize sound.
Rather than treating rhythm as a form of control, I explore it as a field of emergence, turbulence, and possibility, where instability becomes a creative force.
Composed at Absonus Lab Studio.
Selected for presentation at the International Conference on Music and Music Science (CMMR 2025), Cambridge.
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: Acousmatic Music, Granular Synthesis, Algorithmic Composition, Post-Techno, Sonic Philosophy, Critical Sound Art, Hugo Paquete.
Music for Dance & Performance by Hugo Paquete, 2024
YUGEN is the sonic crystallization of a research-based performance I developed under the European Union’s MODINA initiative in collaboration with choreographer Christine Bonansea Saulut and media artist Chris Ziegler. Emerging from experiments with motion capture and VR, the music is not a soundtrack but a dramaturgical force, shaping the dialogue between body, code, and sound.
Multichannel acousmatic composition spatialized for 7 loudspeakers and 2 subwoofers
Premiered at Festival Temps d’Images 2024, Tanzhaus nrw (Düsseldorf), the project was supported by MODINA.
Presented in 2024 at Tanzhaus NRW (Düsseldorf), Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (Tallinn), Trafó House (Budapest), and Kino Šiška (Ljubljana), Yugen is at the forefront of European contemporary dance and digital performance research.
Music by Hugo Paquete. Concept & Direction by Christine Bonansea Saulut & Chris Ziegler. Choreography & Dance by Christine Bonansea Saulut. Media & Stage Design by Chris Ziegler. 3D Programming by Ben Fischer & Chris Ziegler.
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: Acousmatic Music, Experimental Dance, Motion Capture, VR Performance, MODINA Project, Christine Bonansea, Chris Ziegler, Hugo Paquete.
An acousmatic composition by Hugo Paquete, 2022
Pulsar is a multichannel sonic architecture that immerses the listener in the vibrational core of a collapsing star. I compose this work using real-time data from commercial and military satellites, transforming them into non-human performers whose signals directly shape the progression and texture of the piece.
I have presented Pulsar in leading international contexts, including Ars Electronica’s Medium Sonorum (2022), Black Box Experimental Studio, CU Boulder (2024), IN-SONORA 20th Anniversary (Madrid, 2025), and the Colloquium on Spatial Audio, UNAM (Mexico City, 2025).
Designed for a 48-channel loudspeaker orchestra or high-order Ambisonic environments, the work evolves through granular noise swarms and unstable rhythmic sequences that move across scales, from microsonic particle events to the astrophysical pulse of cosmic matter.
As part of my album Dark Energy Synthesis, Pulsar reflects my ongoing post-techno research into non-human agency, critical sound ecologies, and the materiality of digital infrastructures.
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: Post-Techno, Acousmatic Music, Media Art, Spatial Audio, Non-Human Performance, Granular Synthesis, Sonic Infrastructures, Sonification, Hugo Paquete.
Acousmatic Music & Installation by Hugo Paquete, 2022
An acousmatic work translating the SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequence into music through algorithmic sonification. The virus’s genetic code generates MIDI and control voltage data, driving synthesizers to create post-industrial textures and polyrhythms. Tracks like Viral Proofreader and Protein Scissors sonify molecular processes, reframing virology as generative composition.
Premiered at Festival Novas Invasões (Torres Vedras, Portugal, 2021). Also presented at the MediSouP Community Concert (Limassol, Istanbul, Murcia, and online, 2023).
This album is both a standalone acousmatic composition and a document of the 2021 performance and installation presented at the Festival Novas Invasões in Torres Vedras, Portugal. One composition was presented at the second MediSouP Community Concert, “Healing. Listening to a Brave New World.” This hybrid event was held live in Limassol (Cyprus), Istanbul (Turkey), and Murcia (Spain), and broadcast online in April 2023.
Credits:
Composed & Produced by Hugo Paquete
Mastering at Absonus Lab
Support: Torres Vedras Municipality, Direção Geral das Artes
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete..
Keywords: Acousmatic Music, Radical Sonification, Bioacoustics, Data-Driven Composition, Post-Industrial, Virological Music
Acousmatic Music by Hugo Paquete,
2022
A diptych of multichannel acousmatic works, Apoapsis (18:12) and Periapsis (30:28), that sonify real-time orbital data from military and commercial satellites. Apoapsis evokes distance through drifting textures and sparse pulses; Periapsis collapses into granular noise and rhythmic turbulence. Together, they reveal the hidden infrastructures and geopolitical vibrations embedded in orbital pathways, transforming noise into critical signal.
Credits:
Composed, produced, and spatially designed by Hugo Paquete
Custom satellite data sonification system designed by Hugo Paquete
Research & Development:
Developed during a artistic research residency at ZKM | Hertz-Lab (Karlsruhe)
Supported by the European i-Portunus programme
With funding support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: Orbital Sonification, Data-Driven Composition, Multichannel Acousmatic, Electroacoustic Music, Satellite Music, Geopolitical Sound Art, Hugo Paquete, ZKM, Dromology, Apoapsis, Periapsis, Noise Music, Experimental Electronics
An interactive AI sound installation by Chris Ziegler. Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete (2020)
ODO is a generative, non-linear sound ecosystem premiered in the Kubus at ZKM Karlsruhe. Situated at the intersection of interactive performance, spatial composition, and post-techno aesthetics, this work transforms the act of listening into navigational agency.
Using mobile devices, audiences actively reroute the composition in real time, collaborating with AI-driven voices, granular synthesis, and planetary field recordings to co-create an ever-shifting auditory topology. The piece draws inspiration from The Little Prince and HAL9000, framing artificial intelligence not as a tool but as an introspective, narrative agent within a sprawling sonic cosmology.
Structurally organized into planetary zones, travel sequences, and rotational movements, ODO rejects linear narrative in favor of emergent meaning, a living system where human and non-human actors (sound, space, code, bodies) continuously renegotiate the experience of place, memory, and interaction.
Music & Spatial Sound Design: Hugo Paquete
Composed at ZKM | Hertz-Lab, 2019-2020
Concept, Direction, Light & Stage Design: Chris Ziegler
Choreographic Dramaturgy: Paula Rosolen
Text: Michael Hewel
Software Development: Tejeswa Gouda, Brandon Mechtley, Suren Jayasuriya et al.
Electronics: Chris Zlaket
Stage Technician: Hans Gass
Supported by: ZKM Karlsruhe (Hertz-Labor), Arizona State University / Synthesis Center, Landesverband Freier Theater Baden-Württemberg, City of Munich, Fonds Darstellende Künste Berlin
Premiered at 28/03/2020, at ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe and postponed to 25-27 Sept 2020
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords:
Spatial Sound Design, Interactive Composition, AI Music, Post-Techno, Non-Linear Narrative, Post-Humanism, Hugo Paquete, ZKM Karlsruhe, Immersive Acoustics, Responsive Environments.
Music for Dance & Interactive Performance by Chris Ziegler. Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete (2020)
Cosmos: Music for Interactive Dance is more than an album; it is an autonomous sonic system, a universe of sound where composition and astrophysics converge. Originally created for a 48-channel immersive performance at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
Transcending the traditional role of a soundtrack, these spatial compositions function as a "gravitational resonance in the architecture of space-time." The album is a profound synthesis of art and science, translating cosmic phenomena, onstellations, orbital mechanics, and celestial bodies, into a auditory experience.
Aesthetically, the album traverses the realms of drone, speculative noise, and microsound, crafting deeply immersive textures that are both immense and intricately detailed.
Cosmos stands as a testament to the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, merging interactive dance, spatial sound design, and advanced data sonification to explore our place in the universe through sound.
Credits:
Concept & Artistic Direction: Chris Ziegler
Compositions, Sonic Systems & Spatial Sound Design: Hugo Paquete
Dramaturgy: Christine Reeh
Performers: Sayaka Kaiwa, Ted Stoffer
Hardware/Software: Christopher Zlaket, Connor Rawls, Dallas Nichols, Ian Shelanskey, Assegid Kidan
Premiere: 2018 at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.
Production & Support: Produced at ZKM | Hertz-Lab. Supported by FCT Portugal, Arizona State University, and the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords:
Spatial Sound Design, Interactive Composition, Dance, Post-Techno, Non-Linear Narrative, Post-Humanism, Hugo Paquete, ZKM Karlsruhe, Immersive Acoustics, Media Art.
Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete (2015)
Selected by NASA for its OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu, Hugo Paquete’s Unevenness (2015) transcends conventional sound art to become a profound interplanetary cultural artifact. This transformative work synthesizes granular synthesis, immersive field recordings, and deep philosophical inquiry to explore the hidden vibrations, material irregularities, and intangible constituents that underlie perceived reality. By operating deliberately at the threshold of auditory perception,
Unevenness is more than a composition: it is a metaphysical probe, a dysphonic archive, and a visionary meditation on materiality and resonance. Now traveling through space aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, the piece serves as both a message to the cosmos and an invitation to earthly listeners to attune themselves to the invisible forces, fractures, and frequencies that constitute the fabric of our universe.
Credits:
Work: Unevenness (2015)
Artist & Composer: Hugo Paquete
Presented by: NASA #WeTheExplorers Campaign (OSIRIS-REx Mission to asteroid Bennu)
Technical Process: Field recordings, granular synthesis, and digital signal processing focused on pitch, amplitude, and texture manipulation.
Mission Context:
Launched aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (September 2016) to asteroid Bennu as part of a cultural time capsule. The work embodies themes of material instability, cosmic resonance, and imperceptible vibrational phenomena.
Formats:
Stereo (streaming/download) and multichannel spatial version (available for institutional presentation).
Key Themes:
Sonic materialism, interplanetary art, entropy, non-human agency, metaphysical sound inquiry.
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: experimental, Sound Art, NASA, Granular Synthesis, Sonic Materialism, Multichannel, Hugo Paquete
Unpredictable Systems and Collapse,
Software art & Interactive Performance by Hugo Paquete (2013)
(USC) Unpredictable Systems and Collapse is a meta-media performance software art system by Hugo Paquete, existing at the intersection of acousmatic tradition and computational experimentation. Premiered at the PNEM Sound Art Festival (2013), this work functions as a dysphonic hyper-instrument that transforms the computer interface into a landscape of audiovisual entropy.
The system, custom-built using Autorun Pro, AudioMulch, and Plogue Bidule—exposes the hidden fragility of digital environments. Sound emerges not as composed material but as the audible trace of system states, errors, and glitches, creating immersive experiences where control and collapse coexist.
Presented internationally, including at In-Sonora Madrid and broadcast on Rádio Antena 2. (USC) manifests as live performance, installation, or broadcast, each iteration unique. It represents foundational research into non-human agency, systemic failure as aesthetic strategy, and the sonic unmasking of technological unconsciousness.
Credits:
Work: (USC) Unpredictable Systems and Collapse
Artist & Developer: Hugo Paquete
Premiere: PNEM Sound Art Festival (Netherlands, 2013)
Software Environment: Windows-based custom instrument built with Autorun Pro, AudioMulch, and Plogue Bidule, featuring multi-channel spatialization and real-time video synthesis.
Presentations & Broadcasts:
PNEM Sound Art Festival (Netherlands, 2013)
In-Sonora Festival: La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain) (Madrid, Spain, 2016)
International Festival of Creativity, Innovation & Digital Culture (Software Art category), 2013
Arte Eletroacústica / Rádio Antena 2 (Miso Music Portugal broadcast)
Natal dos Experimentais, Passos Manuel (Porto, Portugal, 2015)
Formats: Live performance, immersive installation, and radio broadcast
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: experimental sound art, glitch aesthetics, non-human agency, meta-media performance, software art
Acousmatic Music
by Hugo Paquete (2013)
Radial Transference is a profound acousmatic work that explores the hidden relationships between place, memory, and perception. By colliding field recordings from two distinct geographic and temporal points, day and night, here and there, Paquete creates a sonic topology where sounds contaminate, transform, and redefine one another.
The work delves into themes of spatial contamination and acousmatic unconsciousness, blurring boundaries between natural soundscapes, media fragments, and synthetic interventions. Through advanced granular synthesis and immersive multichannel spatialization, Paquete constructs an auditory environment that mirrors the hybrid and often dislocated nature of contemporary experience.
Presented at prestigious venues like the MAD Museum (New York) and Sounding Cities (Viseu, Portugal), and broadcast on experimental radio platform RADIUS Chicago, Radial Transference invites listeners to engage with sound as a critical tool for re-hearing the world, a vibrating web of relations that binds spaces, times, and meanings.
This work is part of Paquete’s ongoing Dark Energy Synthesis cycle, which investigates unseen energies, acoustic, social, and metaphysical, that shape our reality.
Credits:
Work: Radial Transference (2012/2023)
Composer & Sound Artist: Hugo Paquete (Da Mata Paquete)
Album: Dark Energy Synthesis (Absonus Lab, 2023)
Production: Absonus Lab : a space for sonic experimentation fostering multidisciplinary advances in art, science, and technology.
Technical Environment:
Field recordings, granular synthesis, digital signal processing, multichannel spatialization.
Premieres & Presentations:
MAD Museum of Arts and Design (New York City, USA)Sounding Cities: Invisible Places (Viseu, Portugal)RADIUS (Experimental Radio Broadcast, Chicago, IL, USA)
Ackno wledgments:
Supported by Absonus Lab
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: experimental sound art, glitch aesthetics, non-human agency, meta-media performance, software art
An interactive dance performance by Chris Ziegler. Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete, (2011)
C/Py+on is more than an album, it is a portal into the labyrinthine interplay of body, myth, and machine. Originally conceived as the score for Chris Ziegler’s acclaimed media performance Corpus Pygmalion, this release stands as an independent work, weaving together ancient narrative and digital embodiment into a dense sonic architecture.
Premiered at ZKM | Karlsruhe in 2011 and later presented at Ars Electronica Linz and Theater Dortmund, the performance used the dancer’s body as a “venue of confrontation,” interrogating the blurred boundaries between creator and creation, human and algorithm, desire and design.
From the haunting fragments of Mozart’s aria "Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!" to the emergence of what Paquete terms the “Flesh Algorithm” , a system of generative sound triggered by movement, machinery, and real-time data, C/Py+on traces a metamorphosis. It documents the moment the static ideal cracks open, giving way to a living, glitching, unpredictable entity.
The sound is visceral, tactile, and spatial. Field recordings from the stage, the roll of a wheelchair, the breath of the dancer, the whir of robotic lights, form the raw material of the composition. Through custom interactive software, movement becomes data, and data becomes sound: rhythmic, granular, dissonant, and immersive.
This is electronic music not as product, but as process, a cybernetic score embodied, entangled, and eternally unresolved.
Credits:
Composed by Hugo Paquete
From the performance Corpus Pygmalion by Chris Ziegler
Dance: Moya Michael, Unita Gaye Galiluyo
Text: Michael Hewel
Software: André Berhardt, Niko Völzow, Martin Bellardi, Chris Ziegler
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: soundArt, generativeMusic, InteractiveSystems, experimentalElectronics, corpusPygmalion, hugopaquete, ZKM, arselectronica, contemporaryperformance, acousmatic, glitch, bodyandtechnology
Acousmatic Works for 48 Loudspeakers developed at ZKM by Hugo Paquete, (2011)
Dyspersive Objects unites two acousmatic works composed during Hugo Paquete’s 2011 research residency at ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics (Karlsruhe). Conceived for ZKM’s renowned 48-channel loudspeaker orchestra and spatialized with the institution’s proprietary Zirkonium software, this album documents a deep inquiry into sound’s behavior in space, exploring themes of materiality, entropy, and emergent behavior through two dialectically linked compositions.
Striping Strings and Broken Objects engages in micro-sonic archaeology. It takes the prepared piano, an icon of experimental tradition, and subjects it to granular disintegration and spatial redistribution. Each gesture of scraping, striking, and breaking is amplified and set adrift, transforming the listening space into a resonant chamber of sonic fragments and spectral echoes.
Dyspersive Velocity of the Masses operates on a macro-sonic scale, exploring the physics of collective sonic entities. Through algorithms of reserve feedback and Ambisonic spatialization, synthetic sound masses swarm, collide, and disperse, translating concepts from systems theory into a visceral auditory experience of velocity and force.
Together, these works reflect Paquete’s artistic methodology: leveraging technological innovation to serve a profound conceptual vision. This album is not merely a recording, it is a documented exhibition of sound, preserving two works born at the intersection of art, science, and spatial audio research.
Presented At:
ZKM_Cube (Karlsruhe, 2013) as part of the Produced at IMA: Structures series
Credits:
Composed, produced, and spatialized by Hugo Paquete
Research conducted at ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics (2011)
Spatialization using Zirkonium
Mastered for high-resolution digital release
License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.
Keywords: Acousmatic, Electroacoustic, ZKM, SpatialMusic, SoundArt, GranularSynthesis, Ambisonics, Experimental, HugoPaquete
Anotações Sonoras: Espaço, Pausa, Repetição presents two electroacoustic works distilled from a, site-specific installation by Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais (@c). Conceived for the Exhibitions Pavilion of the University of Porto and realized through a collective of over fifty artists, including Hugo Paquete.
Espaço, Pausa functions as a cartography of a unique sonic community. The piece meticulously articulates the donated sound objects, ranging from fleeting gestures to extended drones, allowing their idiosyncratic textures and histories to remain perceptible. Tudela and Carvalhais act as curators of a living archive, constructing a generative landscape where these fragments collide, converse, and create emergent narratives.
Repetição delves into the metaphysics of the sound object. Infused with poetic texts inspired by Schaeffer and Henry, the piece layers semantic meaning onto its raw sonic material. This act of "poetic indexing" transforms the abstract sounds into metaphorical constructs, encouraging a listening mode that is as much about interpretation as it is about perception. The repetition inherent in the algorithmic system becomes a mechanism for ritual and recontextualization, questioning the stability of a sound’s identity once it is separated from its source and placed into a new, compositional logic.
This album is not a document of an installation but a re-composition of its essence, proving that the most compelling environments are those built not just from sound, but from shared intention and poetic inquiry.
Presented At:
Exhibitions Pavilion, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto (March 24th – June 30th, 2018)
Credits:
Composed by Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela with sound objects created by Alex FX, Hugo Paquete, and over 50 contributing artists.
Cover image by Márcia Novais.
License:
All rights reserved. ℗ & © 2019 Crónica.
Keywords: Electroacoustic, SoundInstallation, GenerativeMusic, CollaborativeArt, SoundObject, Acousmatic, Crónica, Experimental, PedroTudela, MiguelCarvalhais.
PIKADON presents a disorienting survey of the contemporary underground electronic scene, uniting over fifty artists in a sprawling, 51-track remix project. Sourced from the extensive archives of Yoshiwaku Mushotoku, this compilation is less a traditional album and more a collective act of sonic alchemy, where source materials are deconstructed, mutated, and reborn into a chaotic tapestry of industrial, noise, ambient, and experimental genres. The album's sheer scale and the anarchic diversity of its contributors, including the pivotal industrial collage work of Sect, make it a significant document of decentralized digital collaboration.
The compilation operates on a macro level as a system of organized chaos. Tracks like Mescalibur's 19-minute "Nocturna Artificiala" and Hugo Paquete's 14-minute "Dogon Afro-Tech" function as epic, immersive zones, while shorter, sharper interventions from artists like {AN} EeL and Rohypnoise act as disruptive, granular events. This structure creates a non-linear narrative that mirrors the album's conceptual roots in distress signals and societal rupture. The recurring thematic threads, such as the "Weird Bits Blockchain" narrative and the multiple iterations of "Escape Love Game" and "Still Sleeping", bind the disparate pieces into a loosely connected, hallucinatory whole.
For the listener, it offers a challenging but rewarding journey into a world where the boundaries between individual artist, collective, and source material are deliberately blurred, creating a uniquely overwhelming and immersive auditory experience.
Presented By:
A co-production between netlabels Cian Orbe, Earsheltering, Eg0cide Productions, Murmure Intemporel, and The Necrophile Hummingbird.
Credits:
A Various Artists compilation remixing the work of Yoshiwaku, featuring contributions from Sect, Mescalibur, Hugo Paquete, and dozens more.
Released January 17, 2020.
License:
Some rights reserved.
Keywords: Industrial, Noise, Collage, Netlabel, Remix, Compilation, Experimental, Underground, Yoshiwaku, Sect, CianOrbe.
Enough Records . 2010
Falésia 3 serves as a crucial snapshot of the Portuguese dark ambient and industrial underground at the dawn of a new decade. This third installment in the compilation series, curated by Enough Records, maps a diverse and shadowy sonic territory, gathering eleven projects united by an affinity for atmospheric weight and textured gloom. The album functions as both a valuable document of a specific scene and a compelling journey through nuanced shades of darkness, where the distinct voice of each artist, including the formidable Hugo Paquete, contributes to a cohesive yet varied whole.
The compilation navigates through distinct sub-currents of the genre. It opens with the deep, resonant drones of Dyman's "Observa" and Alex Moore's desolate "Aralkum," establishing a vast, cinematic scope. This atmosphere is sharply contrasted by the rhythmic industrial assault of Sektor 304's "I'm Not Your Iron Man" and the abrasive energy of DSM666's "Psicopatia," demonstrating the scene's breadth. Tracks like Ambiansu's "The Train's Bar" and João Farelo's "À_M" explore more nuanced, ritualistic soundscapes, acting as meditative interludes within the album's darker fabric.
The compilation succeeds not by homogenizing its contributors' sounds, but by celebrating their differences, allowing the listener to trace the connective threads that bind this community together. It remains a testament to the enduring power of netlabels in preserving and promoting challenging, non-commercial art.
Presented By:
Enough Records
Credits:
A Various Artists compilation featuring Dyman, Alex Moore, Sektor 304, Hugo Paquete, and more.
Artwork by André Coelho.
Released January 9, 2010.
License:
Some rights reserved.
Keywords: Dark Ambient, Industrial, Portuguese Underground, Compilation, Enough Records, Experimental, Drone, Hugo Paquete, Netlabel.